Rishabh Tongya, Creative Director, DIACOLOR, reveals ambitious plans to establish the brand as a global icon from India, offering fine quality high jewellery and luxury watches.
Established in 2011, high-end jewellery brand DIACOLOR, which is renowned for its flattering, well-crafted jewellery lines studded with the finest of gemstones, recently acquired an emerald and ruby mine in Colombia and Mozambique. The firm is also known for its proclivity towards large rough gemstones—in its possession are the Inkalamu, the 5,655-carat emerald; the Insofu, a 6225-carat emerald; a pair of identical yellow sapphires collectively weighing 278.89 carats; and a 50-carat Briolette Diamond.
DIACOLOR has three boutiques in India atDLF Emporio, New Delhi; The Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, Mumbai; and The Rambagh Palace, Jaipur; and a by- appointment salon in Dubai. The company has a strong export base in Europe, the Middle East and Far Eastern regions, and works closely with some of the important global jewellery brands including Graff, Faberge, Harry Winston, Chopard, and Cartier, to name a few.
Tell us about your background … are you a second-generation jeweller?
Well, I am fortunate to be born in a family that for generations has been involved in the business of sourcing, cutting and polishing gemstones from across the globe. I am the third generation from my family in this business.
At an early age, I got exposed to beautiful rocks and pebbles, and the dinner-table conversations revolved around these precious offerings of Mother Nature. The fascinating stories of sourcing these gemstones and then the sheer joy of being able to create majestic jewels, evoked an unparalleled joy in me, and thus I was naturally inclined towards it. And then, my father ensured that I learnt the basics of the trade, and so, travelling across the world to source the right gemstones became an everyday thing.
When did you decide to establish DIACOLOR?
Post my schooling, I spent most of my formative years overseas between Switzerland, Hong Kong and the Middle East. It is post marriage that I decided to move to Delhi. I soon realised that India is such large country with so many jewellers, but no one pedestal where a seasoned eye could go and get some fine jewellery and watches, so that was the turning point. Today, we are present in three cities and have plans for further expansion and to grow nationwide, offering the best gemstones from the world coupled with great craftmanship and unique Swiss watch brands.
The DIACOLOR boutiques.
DIACOLOR’s unique designs bear a distinct signature … most jewels are inspired by nature and have curvy silhouettes. What inspires you? Do you begin designing with a gemstone in mind or fit in the gem puzzles once you have designed a piece on paper?
It’s a very interesting question. We actually go both ways: one is I might conceive an idea of say making a piece in rubies, but if I don’t find the right gems for it, then the design could be lying as is for a couple of years. For a certain line, say the pret collection, we can always design on the desktop and then come up with intriguing ideas about it … but when it comes to fine jewellery, the gemstones that Mother Nature produces take precedence and together with our artistic creators, I work towards procuring the best quality stones, carve a unique design and ensure great artistry, to create a DIACOLOR piece. I work with them more as an orchestrator conducting this beautiful symphony.
What’s the design philosophy of your brand?
We are a modern contemporary brand; our designs revolve around nature and are also largely influenced by the Art Deco movement. While creating a DIACOLOR piece, we keep three things in mind – one, the piece has to be one-off; second, it should be a great union of choicest gemstones and unparalleled craftsmanship; and third, it has to a piece that you cherish for life.
Your passion for coloured gemstones is evident … What emotions do they evoke in you?
Well, there are two aspects to this, one is as children we have read stories and heard tales about these gemstones like diamonds, rubies carrying value, so to get your hands on them or being in a position of owning these coloured gemstones or diamonds evokes a sense of privilege. I believe if you have a single piece of fine jewellery or any of these beautiful stones, it’s something to be extremely proud about.
And speaking commercially, one is living in an age where crypto has become a 1/5th of the gold production that is available worldwide, I still feel these gemstones are one of the most undervalued assets, when compared to art or other investment categories. It’s something that one enjoys, comes with no annual maintenance expense and remains as your priced possession for generations to cherish.
Any favourite gemstones in particular?
Well, the latest or perhaps the gemstone that I have grown very fond of is the rubies coming out of Mozambique. Finding and collecting rubies of great quality, is one of the most difficult aspects for any jeweller. To collect 2-5-carat riviera for fine coloured ruby can take you anywhere from a year to five years or sometimes never. With this new find, we are quite pleased, as for over the past 1,000 years one has not found such a resource which spits such fine red corundum. We are collecting right from the pigeon blood to pinkish red to reddish pink rubies, and I am certain and excited that in the years to come we will be able to offer some of the choicest rubies to our discerning clients.
DIACOLOR acquired an emerald and ruby mine in Colombia and Mozambique. Will the mines be the exclusive source of your gemstones that will be used in your collections?
These are two separately held entities, so whatever they produce will be offered to all and any potential clients. And at the same time, we will be open to procure from other resources and sellers for our retail brand.
What also really excites us is that by default we are in a privileged position, that we will be one of the only companies in the world, which offers its clients the mine-to-market concept. An end-to-end programme with everything on a block chain, everything traceable, with emphasis on ethically mined stones and transparency, which is a must in the 21st century and has also emerged as a global phenomenon that international brands are gunning for; so for us to be in that position of mining our own gemstones, puts us on a completely different pedestal.
Both the sites are known for their provenance and rare material. Is the rough from your mines sold in the open market?
We are entering into the commercial production stage. It’s another six months for us before we conduct our first auction and that is when we enter the open market.
We would like to know more about the reason for acquiring one-off large emerald rough and other gems? How to do you intend to market the large gems over the years?
So, when such large specimens of fine crystal emerald come up, it is a matter of excitement and at this stage I can also say, it is a matter of privilege, that we as a brand have been able to procure it, obviously we had to put the highest figure in, but looking down the line it appears as a great deal. We have had a few offers where people wanted to pay a premium and buy it from us, but we intend to enjoy the piece while it stands as is. The last two years have unfortunately been Covid-hit, but we have plans to loan the piece to public museum and exhibit the piece or the pieces we have, for the people to marvel at – the piece in right light really looks like a piece of kryptonite.
Eventually, we would cut and polish it and make bespoke nanotag jewellery which is traceable for 50-100 or more years and the consumer also gets to be a part of the journey of how the stone was mined, cut and polished and then set in a piece jewellery. And as most of the best stones like the Kohinoor, the Hope Diamond comes with, this could be one of the most exciting stories for coloured gemstones in the recent times.
How did the pandemic impact your business, and how did you stay connected with the clients?
The Impact was pretty bad, there were few months where we had no visibility of where things were headed; nobody wanted to step out, but right after the pandemic globally there has been a boom, there has been money printing happening all around, and people have realised that they want to spend more and more on themselves and enjoy what they have, at the end of the day its one life. So, we are seeing an rise of 15-20%; China, USA both are doing very well, India is catching up at the moment, but I think once things settle down, we hopefully should expect a boom in our country as well.
At DIACOLOR, we are appreciative and indebted to our clients for their patronage. Tough times, call for tougher actions and to ensure we stayed connected with our patrons, we used various social media platforms, emailers, WhatsApp texts, to check on their wellbeing. It was important to keep retail agendas aside, and evoke the bond of all of one and one for all.
We are a zero-debt company, that’s growing organically, and we feel there is a huge room for fine jewellers and we want to fill in that space. Also, tap into public market for future growth.
Any observations about the consumers’ buying patterns? Have they changed since the last year?
I think North India is moving from big and bold towards small and unique – more on the lines of South India. It is a gradual trend that we have been predicting from a long time, that people are moving towards artistic jewellers … it is a global phenomenon eventually, and everybody ups their taste and aspires for better.